Totem Mani 2 At The Thrift


I found a pair of these at the thrift store the other day, and the more I listen to them the more revealing they are.
And the more amazed I found them the way I did. 
They are sitting on top of a pair of Yamaha NS 1000's, also a thrift find from a decade ago, and the Yamaha's may envelope the room more obviously I am hearing thing coming out of the Mani's that I have not heard with the NS 1000's.
Using a Adcom GTP 400 Pre, and an Acurus A250. I need to pull out my Yamaha CR 2040 and see how they sound with that.
They put so much stuff on their website for sale I was surprised they put these out. I would love to know what was driving them, but I bet they kept that for their website.

(All of the above equipment has come from the thrift over the years.)
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laviathon

@ozzy62 

You must be kidding! If he won't spring for stands, he probably regards Acurus as state of the art.

So you are waiting to find a Krell or Mark Levinson in the thrift store before you upgrade that Acurus?  Not only would the Totems sound better on stands, but with better electronics too….

Sound great listening to Art Pepper on MY VERSION of speaker stands.

 

I would upgrade my Amp, but nah. Only on the fly. Local dig spot won't put good amps out any longer. Sigh.

(A few vintage pieces will be going in the near future)

@laviathon 

They would sound much better on proper stands. Buy a set with all of the money that you saved on the speakers. Speakers are NOT speaker stands.

I could do lots of things........🙄

They sound great on top of my NS 1000’s......😁

@laviathon 

The Totems would perform much better if you'd get an actual pair of speaker stands for them.

The CR 2040 doesn’t really have enough current for the Mani’. A nice 200W SS amp that doubles down into 4 ohms is what you need to look for.

I found a pair of JBL 4311’s a week before the Mani 2’s. $40, sold for $600.....nice speaker, just didn’t need them. The Totem’s are sitting on top of them.

Not familiar with Spica. I am always on the hunt......

Totems at a thrift store? That's like a car in a barn find! Lucky you! A few years ago I found a pair of Spica 50s at a local thrift store and I thought that was a golden egg fine for Thrift stores.

I would mention that I been running these for two years now with a Denon 980 R. Couldn't be happier......(I know I could do better amp wise but not for the price....)

Believe it or not the first unit I ran with them to test them was a NAD 7140. The NAD being the great little unit it is drove them effortlessly.

I will continue to use my group of amps. 
I have a pair and love them. Soundstage is huge - deep and wide. They need power. I drive mine with a pair of B&K M200 monoblocks that were modded by musical concepts. You also need some good solid stands. I’m also using the Totem silver speaker cables.
That is an amazing find at a thrift.  Some family dealt off some great speakers (I hope the deceased audio nut is still resting peacefully...).  I ran a pair of these for several years, then went up to the Signature version.  I definitely would NOT go with lean electronics on these!  They do best with SS amps, due to their impedance and the isobaric bass driver design, but I would lean toward the warmer ones.  Their weakness is a tendency toward hardness in the upper mid's to lower treble, and that's where the amp choice (and speaker cables) can tune things in.
Nice find I guess........where are the Emoji’s. Leaner?

I have only ever had a couple small Speakers that were worth keeping, Kef 102’s, and Tannoy system 800’s so what I am going by for comparison is limited.

Still nice find for a junk shop to say the least. It’s very tough to get anything worth a damn anymore out of them, although it’s possible......

(I never give out prices I pay, but I paid very little for them)
A nice find I'd guess. Not my 'ever-after' speaker. I remember these from showrooms and enjoyed them by and large. I'd look for leaner electronics.  But you did a good job! Have fun.